Hypocrisy is the business of football
A quick look at three recent events in the world of football that showcase its hypocrisy:
Exhibit A: Porto and UEFA
UEFA kick Porto out of the Champions League for ‘bribing referees with professional sex workers’, but later let them back in once the news has died down.
What was that? Temporary benching for a red-card offense? In this case, the offender (Porto) was sent off and later recalled, despite being considered guilty of a red-card offense (bribing referees to change the outcomes of games).
It seems that unless there’s an example that needs to be made (Juve, Ferdinand, etc), the offenders just have a big stick waved at them while the enforcer winks and tell them it’s going to be OK (Milan and now Porto).
Message for UEFA: Be pragmatic, but above all be fair. Don’t throw them out if you’re going to let them back in. Don’t let them back in if their ‘crime’ merits being thrown out. It’s not rocket science folks.
Exhibit B: AFC and Game 39
Asian Football Confederation president, Mohammed Bin Hammam, in February, on the Game 39 proposal:
“We’ll vote strongly against it. The Premier League is putting money before responsibility and dignity.”
Mohammed Bin Hammam, in June, on the same subject:
“I had a chance to talk to the Premier League and I told them, ‘If you want to come to Asia I will welcome you. I don’t have a problem with that. Fans in Asia, they love to see your football’.
I would welcome the Premier League playing in Asia but I would like to see the Premier League come to me through their national association or their confederation.
In football, that structure has to be maintained otherwise we are going to have chaos.
Yes, there is a lot of money in football and a few clubs are getting the biggest share of this income from TV and sponsorship but this shouldn’t stop us from doing things in the right way.”
Hammam, for the record, railed against the Premier League’s future presence in Asia because he said that it would damage local football. Apparently he’s warming up to the idea that if the AFC get a bigger share of profits from the Premier League playing in Asia then they can do what they please, as long as the go through the official channels.
Well-played, Mr Hammam. You had half the world convinced with your ‘we want to protect Asian football’ speech. I know you think the extra money will help, and I agree with you. I just wish you’d said this back in Feb when the whole thing was blowing up. Some honesty and insight into the matter instead of a knee-jerk reaction, not to mention bending to Sepp Blatter’s overt threats against the Premier League.
Exhibit C: Liverpool’s Owners
Hicks and Gillett are now ‘making up’. They’ve apparently realised that they have a responsibility to the club and its fans, and that their spat is hurting the Liverpool’s chances on the pitch.
Here’s my take on it: They’re making up because they see no way out to make a profit from Liverpool otherwise. Everything else is just PR.
I’m sure you guys can add more to this list. Bottom line - if there’s money on the table, you can be sure that football will make sure it gets it all.
First time poster, long time lurker.
I just wanted to put down a few words on “Exhibit A: Porto and UEFA”.
Long story short, the case against FC Porto going on portuguese courts is not finished yet. So being, UEFA cannot decide on a ban from European competitions. Once the case is finished, and if FC Porto are in fact sentenced for what they have been accused of, then UEFA can speak their mind on the subject. Not before that.
The whole thing was that, even though FC Porto did not appeal on their own behalf, FC Porto’s President (Mr Pinto da Costa), being also acussed on his own name, did in fact appeal himself. And being that both cases are in fact linked (due to several evidences, situations, people involved), if later on Mr Pinto da Costa ends up clearing his name, then the club will also be relieved of any guilt on the matter.
UEFA’s decision of banning FC Porto from the Champions League came after several documents were sent by the Portuguese FA. But these documents withheld (due to poor translation) the fact that the decision on the whole case was not final (why this is the case, is explained on the previous paragraph). So being, and thinking that the case was over, UEFA promptly moved to the decision of banning FC Porto from it’s competitions.
After FC Porto gained access to those documents, they contacted UEFA and made their case. UEFA, realising that they could not decide on anything without any final result coming from the investigations going on in Portugal,they pulled the ban, and everything went back to where it started.
So being, UEFA did not, in fact, go back on their decision. They just realised that there actually wasn’t a decision to be taken. At least for now. At least with the proven facts so far. We’ll see what happens in the future.
cheers
joão
(from Portugal.. only 10 Million habitants, but home to the best coach, and the best football player in the world. strange hum?)
Joao,
Thanks for commenting, hopefully this won’t be your last.
I realise what you’re saying - but my point in the first place is that UEFA have to be responsible enough to take intelligent decisions and not make knee-jerk decisions designed purely to appease the masses.
Take it this way - if UEFA hadn’t banned Porto in the first place the furore would have been huge, regardless of what the real facts were. As it happened, the ban settled the issue outside Portugual and only then did UEFA investigate all the facts (why they didn’t talk to FC Porto before banning them and why they didn’t apprise themselves of da Costa’s appeal is beyond me). This methodology either depicts gross misconduct or pandering to the media. Either way, doesn’t do much for their reputation.
As for Porto - I hope they’re cleared, although the idea in itself (bribing refs with prostitutes) is too funny.
And as for Portugal - you only have the most effective player in the world, and the most outrageous coach
Shocking, Porto, how do Uefa expect to be taken seriously it’s a joke. The Yanks affair is over done I really don’t care about Liverpool behind the scenes anymore to be honest.
I totally agree with you Ahmed. Specially concerning the smart decisions that NEED to come out of UEFA. And also why didn’t they make sure their initial decision was the right one. I mean, they really ought to set the tone on whatever has to do with football right?
But once thing I have to say in UEFA’s behalf. The initial document sent to UEFA (the one that withheld, due to poor translation, the fact that the decision on the whole case was not final) was only sent due to HUGE pressure by Benfica, wich would benefit from FC Porto’s ban from the CL, and they would be the ones to occupie the Portuguese vacancie on the competition. It is normal that a case of such proportions does take it’s time being finalized, and Benfica just couldn’t have none of that, and they just wanted to rush things in order to be able to have a decision out in time for them to get into next years CL. If the pressure hadn’t been there, and things took their time, UEFA wouldn’t have felt the need to make the decision they, later on, had to forget about.
You also have a reference to Milan and to Juve on your initial post. But i feel those are different cases. The thing was that, when the whole Calcio Caos case blew up, there wasn’t any regulations concerning clubs involved in match-fixing scandals. And since Milan applied to the CL before the regulations were changed, they could not have been banned from the competition. As for Juve, since they were dropped to the Serie B, their first time applying to European Competitions in, in fact, this year. And if UEFA consider banning FC Porto (if they end up guily) they should have already banned Juve (since they were in fact considered guilty, even after all appeals were presented).
Another stupid decision by UEFA was only banning Bastian Schweinsteiger for a single game for pushing a Croatian player (and getting a red card), and at the same time banning the turkish GK Volkan Demirel for two matches for doing exacly the same thing.
Schweinsteiger went on to scoring against Portugal, also adding two assists to his name.
Does this sound akward at all? Maybe it’s just because I’m portuguese
“And as for Portugal - you only have the most effective player in the world, and the most outrageous coach ”
touché
Porto’s rivals take case to the CAS.